I started drawing golf holes when I was 8-9 years old. I recall a neighbor telling me about "Golf Course Architects," and I got a bit more serious...at least for a 10-year-old. A few years later I wrote to the ASGCA and the NGF. I received some general information from each. What the ASGCA sent me in 1970 was a folder with a map of North American imprinted with dots showing where ASGCA members were located...one was in my zip code, 85018. I called that member — Arthur Jack Snyder — and he said I could visit. I did, riding my 10-speed there. He thought I was in college when I called, but got a kick out of meeting a middle school kid.
I also began writing and publishing THE GOLF COURSE DESIGNER, a newsletter. Subscribers included about 60 — among them, Desmond Muirhead, Arnold Palmer's Office, a bunch of golf architects, and some kind friends of my parents who wanted to support my "habit."
Muirhead later sent me a letter "reprimanding" for writing about one of his par-3s without actually playing it! But, he also included a $75 check that basically funded another year of publishing. I later visited Muirhead when I was about 13, my mother drove me to Balboa Island and once again I was greeted and the assumption was I must have been — at least — able to drive! That visit is another story, quite interesting and it led to a long friendship with Desmond.
Eventually I worked in association with Jack Snyder for 25 years. It was a classic mentor relationship.
I never considered anyone or anything a "gatekeeper". I think you can look at a "gate" in two ways. One is as a barrier "protecting what lies behind" and the other is to look at it as an opening. Both Snyder and Muirhead were mentors — and they could not have been more different. Yet, each respected the other and both encouraged me to keep digging, learning, reading and thinking.
Golf Course Architecture is really a unique art form — and it is equally a unique profession. The very fact that you don't "have to" join a professional organization is good evidence of this. In comparison to the practice of landscape architecture, where you pretty much "have to" become a member of ASLA, there are several who practice golf design that are not members of ASGCA, EIGCA or SAGCA. It's a choice, not a "need."
My comment about this over the years has been consistent: Being involved in ASGCA is as much about contributing as it is about receiving — it is a two-way street. When I look back on 20 years of spending time and interacting with the diverse styles, approaches and ways of thinking of ASGCA members, I believe it would have been a tremendous loss not to have had those conversations, opportunities and debates.
It is interesting to read here about the letters. I, too, wrote a bunch — Fazio, Cornish, Trent Jones, Sr., Fred Hawtree, etc. I'll bet this is a common denominator among us all.
BTW, this is a very thoughtful thread...exactly what the founders of the Atlas had in mind when the discussion first started. Thanks!